Whereas in the past link chains in standard sizes, produced from round wire, were used for the scraper chains of scraper-chain conveyors, in the case of mining conveyors a change was already made a long time ago to use link chains with a special shaping of the chain links for the scraper chains, in order to meet the continually increasing requirements on the chain forces and to correspond to the operating behaviour of the scraper chains. In the case of the present scraper-chain conveyors, in order to be able to use stronger chains, which would meet the increased power demand on the scraper-chain conveyors, it has been proposed in the prior art to flatten the vertical chain links of the chains on their parallel longitudinal limbs and accordingly, without reducing the cross-section, to reduce them in their overall height to a dimension which corresponds to a standardized round-link chain of lower chain strength (DE 32 34 137 C3, DE 36 15 734 C2).
Furthermore, considerable efforts have been directed to improving the running and loading behaviour of the scraper chains, which are highly loaded in use, in particular in relation to their expansion behaviour and to their interaction with the driving chainwheels. Thus, for example, it is known to use, for the horizontal chain links of the highly-stressed link chains, special links which are reinforced and broadened at their chain-link nose parts, so that the specific pressure per unit area when the chains are running around the chainwheels is reduced, and hence also the wear on the interacting surfaces of the horizontal chain links and the chainwheel toothing is reduced (DE 22 47 300 B2, DE 32 19 178 C2, DE 32 35 474 C2). In the case of these chains, the usual round wire chain links in the welded design are used for the vertical chain links.